Various devices have been heretofore designed for the purpose of enabling a hand-held release to be utilized in drawing a bow string and releasing the same in a smooth manner. Some of these devices include manually gripped release aids which are releasably attached to the corresponding bow strings and other devices include bow string mounted arrow nock holders including portions thereof adapted to be releasably engaged by a hand-held release. Still further, other types of release mechanisms are provided for use in conjunction with special arrow nocks and may be utilized to releasingly grip such special arrow nocks when drawing the bow string of a bow.
However, when a release aid or arrow nock holder is semi-permanently attached to a bow string the release aid can cause vibration or deflection of the bow string immediately after its release and during acceleration of the associated arrow and a bow string mounted arrow nock holder can sometimes be troublesome when it is desired to quickly nock an arrow to the bow string. Still further, hand release mechanisms which include structure for releasably engaging an arrow nock require the utilization of arrows equipped with special nocks.
Accordingly, a need exists for an apparatus which may be utilized in the manner of a hand-held release but which will not require actual engagement of the apparatus with an associated bow string and allow an arrow nock to be engaged with the bow string in a conventional manner.
Examples of different forms of hand-held releases and release aids are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,542,159, 3,606,875, 3,847,133, and 3,886,924.